One Piece: Path to Power

Chapter 20: [20] The New World is Dark and Full of Terrors

[3000 words]

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[Three Weeks Later]

BOOM!

A grand spectacle broke out as cracks formed in the air while crimson currents surged on the receiving end. 

A huge shockwave raged on and shattered apart the red barrage of energy as the ground warped in return. 

First, it was ripped apart, followed by exploding into innumerable pieces. 

"Damn, that hurts!"

A young voice resounded as a body stepped out from a huge cluster of debris formed by a collapsed hill. 

Sharp, red pupils gazed at the ginormous pirate casually standing a few tens of meters away. 

"You really don't like pulling your punches, Newgate-san."

"Gurarara," The giant man laughed. "What's the problem, kid? Your body recovers pretty fast."

Even though he said it rather offhandedly, Whitebeard was quite surprised. 

He had been humouring Damien's crazed thirst for fast growth by giving him a daily dose of bone-rattling earthquakes. 

If only he knew that Damien was trying to further increase his anatomy and devil fruit mastery by taking the brunt of a natural disaster. 

.

Dusting off his shoulders, the bold pirate shot forth without much care from the damage from before. 

*Vvoosh!*

The air whistled as Damien appeared right before the towering Whitebeard. 

"Heh, let's see you stand up from this one, kid!"

*Purrup*

A glowing white orb bubbled around the infamous pirate's left fist.

Damien did not waver; wrapping his Haki-clad fist that began to boil with volatile crimson energy. 

The attacks collided.

BOOM!

"Ugh!" Damien gritted his teeth as he felt his entire left arm go numb as if thousands of needles were drilling into his very bones. 

The energy from his hand sprinted forth endless currents of pulverizing energy as they swamped towards the overpowering Whitebeard. 

Newgate grinned slightly as his fist slowly began to shift ahead, pushing back Damien's emblazing attack. 

Boom!

Another explosion followed as the young pirate was shot into another faraway hill, effectively drilling right in.

"..."

A dull silence arrived as the restless air began to calm down in the wake of the recent clash.

Newgate looked down at his fist and squinted his eyes in interest. 

"You're copying Haki Emission with your powers," he smirked. "It stings, kid!"

*Rumble*

Soon the huge pile of destroyed earth trembled as a body slowly stood up, clawing its way out.

Damien's arm was bleeding, his forearm broken; a bone visibly protruding out. 

*Crunch*

The young man pushed the bone back into place, eliciting a dull groan. 

Yet the pained expression was washed away, replaced with a wry smile.

"You're not even using any Haki, my power is really nothing worth mentioning."

"Gurarara! Don't sell yourself short," Whitebeard said, walking toward Damien. "You did well to trim my nails."

Damien rolled his eyes. 

The two pirates had become more natural in their interactions with each other; Damien appreciated the future Emperor's help in training while Whitebeard was impressed by the rookie pirate's perseverance. 

Damien's routine was: wake up, eat, guide Aurora for a few hours while practicing Observation Haki, eat, train his fruit and Armament Haki with Whitebeard, eat, train in combat with some senior Fishmen who had welcomed him after freeing their people, eat, sleep, and repeat. 

A schedule that would leave most with broken spirits and shivered timbers, yet to Damien, it was just another day.

'Yet even now I stand little to no chance against the real monsters of this world.'

That is the thought that drove him to continuously claw at every opportunity to get stronger, subconsciously warding away all other shackles.

…

[A While Later]

Damien had collected himself and left for an area Northeast of Fishman Island.

Just yesterday some mermaids had come to give him an invitation from Neptune to come there.

'Sibyl, bring up my stats,' he said while making his way to the location.

[Coming right up.]

>=-=----[]---<>---[]---=-=<

[Einar D. Damien]

[Age: 16 years, 4 months, 11 days]

[Height: 10' 4"] (3.15 m)

[Status: Tired, Injured]

[Strength: Middle Tier Yonko Commander ↑] 

[Devil Fruit: Pulverize-Pulverize Fruit (Intermediate Mastery) ↑]

[Fruit Rating: 6.5 Stars]

[Seastone Resistance: 69.7% ↑]

[Skills: Lightning Recovery, Mighty Vitality, Evolable Anatomy, Voice of All Living Things, Will of D., Rokushiki]

[Haki: Observation Haki (Intermediate Mastery), Armament Haki (Intermediate Mastery) ↑, Conqueror's Haki (Initial Mastery) ↑]

>=-=----[]---<>---[]---=-=<

"Even after all that beating my Anatomy isn't ready to evolve," Damien said out loud with some uncertainty.

It seemed the gap between strength would only grow, that simply meant he needed to try harder and get beat up some more.

He then turned to another string of text.

"Conqueror's Haki…" 

Something one could not train, rather it would grow with one's own mental status and overall strength.

"Sibyl, based on my memories, who would be a rival in strength?" Damien asked.

The reply came fast: [At your current strength, you could go equally against the likes of Smoothie or Jozu.]

But there was one thing Damien was able to gauge after the three-week timeskip.

"Show me Whitebeard's current profile."

>=-=----[]---<>---[]---=-=<

[Edward Newgate]

[Age: 32 years, 2 months, 19 days]

[Height: 21' 10"] (6.66 m)

[Status: Thriving]

[Devil Fruit: Tremor Tremor Fruit (???)] 

[Fruit Rating: 7 Stars (Ultimate-Class Fruit)]

[Haki: Observation Haki (???), Armament Haki (Advanced Mastery), Conqueror's Haki (???)]

[Strength: Within Yonko Stage] 

>=-=----[]---<>---[]---=-=<

Without a doubt, the readings were missing in detail. Such imprecise results were credited to Damien's weak Observation Haki and strength.

"Garp's exchange with Whitebeard was the only reason I could gauge the Armament Haki, I still need a lot of training," Damien sighed as he reached his destination.

.

He saw a ginormous merman not too far, simply gazing into the distance.

"You called me to the Sea Forest, Neptune," Damien said as he landed by the Knight's side.

The Fishman hummed towards the young pirate; "The mermaids have shown you around the island, all but this place."

He then turned his eyes to the wasteland surrounded by giant trees.

An enormous ship sat on the far horizon – Noah!

"This is the Sea Forest, the final area you have yet to see."

Perhaps it was Neptune showing his goodwill to Damien, or maybe it was something else, but naturally, Damien wouldn't mind since Fishman Island was a special place.

"Come with me-jamon."

The two went through the rather well-lit area that was littered with destroyed ships and debris, a result of being at the bottom of the sea floor.

"Hmm?" Damien squinted his eyes as he felt a foreign voice from afar.

Something, someone, was calling to him.

He made his way over to the cove, within a depression surrounded by a ring of rocks.

At the very center stood a large, blue cube-shaped stone, carved with ancient words and symbols.

.

"Poneglyphs," Neptune came as well as he said, "It's the ancient script that has sat here for centuries now-jamon."

[Image of the Poneglyph (in Discord)]

Damien nodded, not exactly surprised by the stele.

His eyes soon drifted to the side where an equally large stone sat.

The only difference was that it was deep-red in colour.

'That is…!' Damien unconsciously gulped as he saw the Poneglyph.

'One of the Road Poneglyphs!'

The combined locations detailed by all four Road Poneglyphs allow one to locate Laugh Tale, therefore, becoming the King of the Pirates!

Damien recalled that this stele was eventually lost a few years after Roger read its contents, quite a suspicious outcome.

[Image of the Road Poneglyph (in Discord)]

.

Damien sighed, he could not read the stone, not yet anyway.

He then fixed his eyes back on the Blue Stone.

It was the stone that called out to him.

The one that pulled him here.

"An apology… Joyboy," Damien muttered as the whispers echoed in his ears.

"Y-You can read it!?" Neptune yelped from the side.

Damien slowly shook his head.

"This Poneglyph was written by someone consciously, not simply to detail knowledge or lost history, but carved with quite a lot of emotion," Damien explained.

{Forgive me…}

A distant yet tired voice that left the young pirate solemn.

"I can hear the ancient voice, in whispers, but it's there."

Neptune was breathing heavily.

While the giant merman was lost in thought, Damien reached out to the stone.

There was something else there, he could feel it.

*Fwoo!*

An orb of white energy soon shot out from the core of the Poneglyph towards Damien.

The young pirate grabbed the ball of energy and analyzed it.

It was some sort of glowing orb...

Upon inspection, the ball was an odd thing, it was neither cold nor hot.

It had no weight.

It almost felt like it did not even exist!

A description soon surfaced in his mind, bringing clarity.

>=-=----[]---<>---[]---=-=<

[Memory Shard (1 of 3)]

[Collect all three shards to unlock the message left behind by the original System User.]

>=-=----[]---<>---[]---=-=<

'Huh?'

A voice soon erupted in Damien's mind, it was Sibyl.

 [Damien, this seems to be a piece of the key to my locked data.]

Damien thought over the information he had just gotten.

Soon the white energy was absorbed into the red-eyed youth's hand and disappeared like such.

Such a scene left him thinking.

'I guess I'll find them eventually, I wonder if the original user had ties with Joyboy in some way…,' Damien thought.

.

Meanwhile, Neptune woke up from his daze and did not comment on the memory shard, as if it was invisible.

"Damien-kun, I guess this wraps up the tour-jamon," he muttered, still shaken about the stele's words.

Neptune then reached into his pocket and took out a sheet of paper.

It looked comically tiny in his hands but it was only slightly too small in Damien's.

"This came in recently, it's dated 15 days ago but news takes time to reach down here-jamon."

Damien eyed the newspaper and scoffed.

"A band of pirates headed by the Sin Incarnate besieged the World Nobles at Sabaody Archipelago. All pirates besides Einar D. Damien were apprehended."

Neptune nodded at Damien's annoyance, "The Government is very keen on keeping things as much in control as they can-jamon."

Damien nodded with a slight sigh, "No news on the four dead Dragons, they even erased all mention of Newgate-san or any words on the Rocks Pirates."

Though his eyes fell upon a string of words, "The World News Agency."

Neptune scratched his glorious orange beard and chimed in a few thoughts of his own:

"It is the news agency under full control of the World Government, it's one of their greatest tools-jamon."

'No wonder the Government had no trouble erasing the Rocks Pirates from history,' Damien surmised.

A disdainful smile soon appeared on Damien's face.

'The government wants to bastardize history? I can't let that happen. Rather it's best to take it into my hands!'

Damien pondered for a second.

He inputted the parameters and said: 'Sibyl, ready the task, codename 'Nexus' with a due date of 1486,' he ordered.

[Got it.]

Following that, he inputted a few parameters.

>=-=----[]---<>---[]---=-=<

[Operation Nexus]

[Find World News Agency Main Base – ❌]

[Find Replacement President – ❌]

[Bring the Replacement Under Control – ❌]

[Have the Agency exit the World Government's Grasp – ❌]

[Time Limit – 1486]

>=-=----[]---<>---[]---=-=<

A wise man once said, "Whoever controls the media, controls the mind."

Damien didn't exactly care much about what the commoners of the world thought of him, rather it was a tool that would greatly serve his purpose in controlling, or at least, somewhat slowing the Government down.

In the current era, the World Government could do just about anything and get away with it. Much like how later on Morgans was able to drive the world in certain wavelengths by his reports.

Damien wanted such power too. 

Naturally, allowing the soon-to-come God Valley Incident to drain away in forgetfulness was rather unsightly as well.

Beyond that, a fitting President could also do great in sending information.

*Plop*

A small sheet of paper then fell out from the newspaper and onto the sea floor, interrupting Damien's train of thought.

He looked below and gave a small smile.

Naturally, it was a bounty.

-----< WANTED >-----

< EINAR⋅D⋅DAMIEN >

< 'Sin Incarnate' >

< 𝔅 300,000,000 - >

< DEAD or ALIVE >

----------------------------

"The number doubled, most likely the pissed-off Nobles trying to hunt me down for my 'sins'."

…

[Nearby]

"So, you're leaving now?" the distant yet soft voice resounded from the cave.

It was a large clearing made within one of the large coral hills in the outer parts of Fishman Island. The area where Damien and Aurora were training.

"Mhm," he answered. "Your devil fruit goes a little too well with Observation Haki, it's quite impressive."

Damien was talking while glancing at a screen within his mind.

>=-=----[]---<>---[]---=-=<

[Amethyst Aurora]

[Age: 17 years, 1 months, 26 days]

[Height: 7' 4"]

[Status: Healthy]

[Devil Fruit: Aether-Aether Fruit (Intermediate Mastery)]

[Fruit Rating: 6.5 Stars]

[Haki: Observation Haki (Initial Mastery)]

[Strength: Yonko Crew Pirate] 

>=-=----[]---<>---[]---=-=<

"To think the stowaway I picked up was a princess," Damien teased. "Now I feel like a main character now."

It was a tale Aurora shared with him.

A story about a girl who was forced out of her own kingdom, her family killed and betrayed by their very own minister.

.

Aurora looked at the tall pirate who had vastly broadened her horizons over the past three weeks. 

"I won't forget our deal," she said with a resolute tone. "This is an assurance."

Damien examined the purple-haired bounty hunter.

He then looked down to see her open palm holding a thin piece of plain paper.

Yet every moment, the paper would inch toward the girl like a magnet.

"Your Vivre Card," Damien smirked. "It's akin to putting a tracker on yourself for anyone to hunt you down."

Yet his words failed to invoke anything more than a determined gaze from the girl.

Pocketing the paper, he nodded.

"Good luck. Try not to die, otherwise, it'll cause some troubles for my plans."

Damien left the cave, waving backwards to the girl.

Aurora looked at the slowly shrinking figure, her gaze inexplicable.

Did she sell her soul to the devil for her revenge?

She balled her fists, throwing away loose thoughts. 

Her time with Damien taught her some patience. 

To bide her time and train in the powers of Haki. For the first time in her life, the path ahead was no longer covered in darkness, rays of hope lightened the way.

Such hope could either make or break a desperate person.

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[By the Edge of Fishman Island]

"Dammit!"

Boom!

A huge explosion echoed through the coral grounds as a black club hammered down.

Blasts of powerful thuds rippled through the terrain as a giant pirate rained down attacks on a smaller one.

"Damien, you bastard!"

"Why is your bounty higher than mine all of a sudden!"

Kaido was throwing a fit of rage as he began to pummel the recently arrived Damien.

The latter was dodging all attacks with his smaller and quicker stature.

"What's wrong Kaido, you can't even land a single hit, no wonder there's an eighty million gap between our bounties!" 

Damien fashioned a grin as he shaved through the air, further enraging the beast.

"Raimei Hakke!"

"Fury Road!"

The purple lightning and crimson energy exploded all over the nearby land as waves of shock spread forth.

Cracks formed all over the soil beneath as dust and debris soon remained.

*Bang!* *Bang!*

Two pitch-black bullets fired at the clashing pirates as the air whizzed in their wake.

Damien and Kaido's eyes shone in Observation as the two instantly recoiled by instinct.

"That's enough, the ship was finally fixed and you're already trying to break it apart!" 

The annoyed voice came from the unassuming woman with the pistol in her hands.

It was naturally Shakky.

"Tch!" Kaido couldn't unload his irritation anywhere so he simply went to the ship and fell asleep.

Another towering pirate soon arrived on the scene.

"If you want to fight, I'm sure you'll get that chance soon," Whitebeard casually said.

Damien narrowed his eyes, 'The New World… the unconquered sea with endless monsters awaiting, I'm finally there!'

Shakky nodded at her 'companions' and began the ascending protocol to sail up.

"To the New World!"

…

[A Few Hours Later]

Traversing through the dark sea took a while, though the ship was repaired to sail, its structural integrity was long lost, and its expiry date was coming soon.

Damien soon saw the ocean end as the ship emerged from the depths.

*Rumble*

The storm alongside the constant thunder was awfully conspicuous.

The rain poured incessantly, while it was snowing in the far East, and hailing further South.

Tempestuous currents carried the ship while the sails creaked in response.

The weather was not the main attraction.

*Purrup*

Whitebeard's right hand soon pulsed with a blue orb as the air inside was long ravaged.

*Click*

Shakky's pistol cocked in a bullet and she let out a cloud of smoke.

*Thunk*

Kaido slammed his mace on the deck of the ship with a wide grin.

*Szzz*

Crimson energy sizzled out from Damien's hand, ready to fight.

A loud voice resounded from the chaotic seas: "You bastards are finally out, I was running out of rice crackers waiting for you!"

Another voice soon followed.

"Garp, this is not the time for your nonsense, these pirates must die here before they can reach Hachinosu!"

The conversation took place at the core of the welcoming party.

Ten large marine warships, bred for battle.

Damien's sharp eyes zoomed in on the two figures standing on side-by-side ships.

Their mighty frames cast a wide net of relief to the thousands of Marines, leaving them in high spirits.

It was a force beyond even a Buster Call!

.

"Ten warships headed by ten Vice Admirals," Shakky blew out some more smoke as she casually said. "All under the command of Vice Admiral Garp and Admiral Basara."

Damien smirked in response, his crimson eyes reflecting the upcoming battle, "Quite the welcome to this hellish sea!"

To Be Continued…

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Author's Corner.

That draws an end to the mass release of 20 chapters. Hopefully, they were of decent quality. Thanks for getting all the way up here... and now you wait.

Images: https://discord.gg/aJHHHPvb6q